"Get another chair," said she, in a low voice. "It is pleasant here."
He obeyed quickly and noiselessly, as he did everything. She had taken his chair, and he sat down beside her, waiting for her to speak.
"I thought I should find you here, Julius," she said, calling him by his Christian name without the smallest hesitation. "I wanted to speak to you alone."
"You have the faculty of finding me," said Julius with a short, low laugh.
"Since when is it so disagreeable to you?" asked Diana.
Julius was silent, for there was nothing he could say. He wished he had said nothing at first,--it would have been much better. Diana continued.
"You and I know each other well enough to talk freely," she said. "We need not beat about the bush and say pretty things to each other, and I forgive you for being rude, because I know you very well, and am willing to sacrifice something. But I will not forgive you again if you are rude in public. There are certain things one does not permit one's self, when one is a gentleman."
"You are very good, Diana," said Batiscombe, humbly. "I am very sorry. I lost my temper."
"Naturally," she answered coolly. "You always lose your temper,--you always did,--and yet you fancy continually that you hide it. Let that go. I have forgiven you for this time, because I am the best friend you have."
"Perhaps. You are well hated, I can tell you. Then treat me as a friend in future, if you please, and not as an inquisitive acquaintance who makes a point of annoying you for her own ends."
She spoke calmly, in a quiet, determined voice, without the slightest hesitation or affectation. Julius bent his head.
"Now listen to me," she continued. "I came upon you this afternoon by pure accident. I do not owe you any apology for that, and you know very well that I am the last person in the world to do things in that way, by stealth. That is the reason I come to you here, at night, to tell you my mind frankly."
"Yes," said Batiscombe, in a muffled voice, "I know."
"I came upon you by accident," said she, "and I made a discovery. You pass your afternoons in the society of my sister-in-law, and you lose your temper with me when I find you together,--though you always wish me to understand that you prefer my society to that of any woman in the world."